[Reaction time measures in depressed patients]

The work presented below is enclosed in a research on depressive retardation in children. It deals with the measurement of reaction time to sensori stimuli (visual or auditory) among children from 7 to 13 year old. Patients with major depressive episode were presented twice, before medication and at their discharge. The assessment which is performed to the nearest thousandth of a second thanks to a program developed on micro computer includes 5 test situations: 1. simple visual stimulation; 2. simple auditory stimulation; 3. choice situation between visual and auditory stimulation; 4. unlocated visual stimulation; 5. choice situation between two different visual stimulations. Generally speaking the best scores are logically achieved for the simple auditory tests followed by the simple visual test. The highest scores almost systematically appear for the test offering the choice between two different visual stimulations. For each of the five tests the values are always correlated between the two passation periods. These correlations mean that the passation time depends on each child. Those who achieved "good scores" in the depression phase before medication are the same who achieve good scores at their discharge and vice versa. These performances have no relation either with the age of the children. The analysis of the results brings out two factors: For simple stimuli tests, performances do not vary between the two passation periods and therefore show a motor normal function. On the other hand, for tests which involve a choice (and therefore decision making) before medication children react significantly more slowly than after improvement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)